It’s February. Get ink. Weep.
Write the heart out about it, sing
Another song of February
While raucous slush burns black with spring.
Boris Pasternak
What is it about February? It’s not a cheerful month, is it? Perhaps it’s that sense of how much longer we have to wait for spring. The weather has a bad reputation too – ‘February fill-dyke’. This year we don’t even have Lent to look forward to. But don’t despair. We are doing all we can in the parish to cheer you up!
Performance
There’s a lunchtime concert on 2nd with Angela Brownridge, well know to many of us from previous performances in the church; the Florin Ensemble on 5th; Literary Hour on 16th features Joanna Baillie of whom wikipedia states “Joanna Baillie (11 September 1762 – 23 February 1851) was a Scottish poet and dramatist. Baillie was very well-known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage. Admired both for her literary powers and her sweetness of disposition, she hosted a brilliant literary society in her cottage at Hampstead. ” [And she’s buried in our churchyard.] ; on 18th we have an evening of Keats’ poems and Chopin’s music, devised by Virginia Dimitriou who organised the very successful Keats evening held here in 2009.
Groups
Then there’s the Study Centre which continues its series on St Matthew [not on 2nd February though] and all our regular groups – Wednesday Bible Study, Monday Women’s Group, Holy Hamsters [I happened to be in church one Thursday morning and watched a thoroughly good time being had by around 30 children and carers – it’s worth dropping in one morning just to see what fun they have]. Churchyard tours continue on 5th and 26th and don’t forget, if you like gardening, there’s a group meets on the first Saturday of each month from 10am to help keep the churchyard tidy.
A cause for celebration
And finally, we round off the month with a special Evensong to celebrate that Father Stephen has been our Vicar now for 10 years. Do come, and stay for some refreshments after the service.
There are more details about some of these elsewhere in this issue, along with the review of An Ideal Husband, C4WS [Community of Camden Churches Cold Weather Shelters] report and Fairtrade news [Poverty and Homelessness Action Week starts the month off and Fairtrade Fortnight finishes it]. The Sunday School will have marked Poverty and Homeless Action Week with a cake stall to raise money for C4WS on 30th January and we’re celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight with a Honey and Wine Tasting on 5th March – you’ll find some honey recipes further on – OK not February, I know, but something to look forward to and perhaps a final drink before Lent!
And if that’s not cause for celebration enough why not cheer yourself up with a look at some of the events lined up for the rest of the year on page 18.
When the bust of Keats was stolen some years ago [and rather briefly, it turned up in local auction room] Diana Raymond wrote this for the magazine:
Ode to Keats
Where did you wander, poet, when you left
The niche where you had kept your watch so long?
Did you hear nightingales – or just the city’s song?
What did you remember – choirs, candles, feasts –
[Easter, Whit and Advent, Christmas too]
Lost and fading as you fled
Into the blue?
Long ago they bore you to the sun,
Away from Hampstead’s green to Italy
Far from your love, giving quietness to your poetry.
“Writ in water”? no, you were not lost
Poets bring whispers from a different shore;
So you came back to face us and to give
Blessing once more.
DR
And finally, if there’s a fine day, have a look round the churchyard and additional burial ground – the Christmas Box is flowering at the front of the church and there are snowdrops and primroses in both churchyards – spring is on its way.
February
Judy East